All over the country, jurisdictions are fighting over fluoride. In September, the city council in Portland, Ore., voted to fluoridate city drinking water in an effort to reduce tooth decay. In August, Milwaukee reduced the level of fluoride in its water after a city alderman launched a campaign to completely eliminate it. A year ago, in a decision that also had implications in Nov. 6 elections, Pinellas County, Fla., commissioners voted to stop adding fluoride to drinking water (more about that in a minute.)

Public health officials and state and local dental groups stand up for community fluoridation, which has been hailed by the Centers for Disease Control as one of the great public health achievements of the 20th century. For more than 65 years, communities across the United States have been supplementing naturally occurring fluoride in water supplies to promote oral health. At what are considered optimum levels, numerous studies have shown fluoride reduces cavities.

But too much fluoride can be a bad thing, public health officials have acknowledged. Consumption at excess levels may cause fluorosis and skeletal deformities, research has found.

Fluoride opponents continue to insist that any fluoride is bad.

Wichita pediatrician Larry Hund, a leader in Wichita’s fluoridation campaign, told Calovich that he and his allies had worked hard to explain the oral health benefits of fluoride to voters.

“We have 14,000 patients; we talked to a lot of parents and tried to do a lot of education. I wish we could have done more education,” he said. But he added: “It’s easier to scare people than to teach them about the science involved.”

“He said that the claim that fluoride is toxic played more to emotion than to science, and that people who were able to understand the science advocated fluoride,” Calovich wrote.

Meanwhile, she found that anti-fluoride forces in Wichita had a powerful supporter in Mark S. Gietzen, president of the Kansas Republican Assembly.

Pleased with the victory in Wichita, the Republican leader told the Eagle he planned to continue to fight fluoride on a larger scale.

“We’re definitely going to take this statewide; we’re not going to quit,” Gietzen said. He suggested he might begin to work toward a state recommendation against fluoridation while still allowing communities to decide for themselves whether they wanted it.

“Since I am connected to the National Federation of Republican Assemblies … I’m going to try to make fluoride one of our core issues,” Gietzen said. He likened fluoride to lead and asbestos: “Things that we thought were right back then maybe were not such a good idea after all. That’s where we are with fluoride.”

The defeated commissioners, Nancy Bostock and Neil Brickfield “were part of a bloc of commissioners who voted … to stop adding the cavity-fighting mineral to the county’s drinking water,” the reporters wrote.

“The four commissioners who opposed fluoride said they were motivated by concern for public health while critics called the vote as a capitulation to tea party extremists who believe fluoride is harmful.”

“The voters clearly said they want fluoride in the water,” Brickfield told the Tampa Bay Times. “And I will never vote against fluoride again as long as I live.”

Bostock said the fluoride issue was unfairly emphasized by the newspaper in its election reporting and editorials.

“When I was out in the community the topic of fluoride came up very, very little. But the coverage of it was excessive,” Bostock said.

In a Nov. 1 editorial “The Real Cost of the Fluoride Fiasco” the newspaper featured brief stories about several families, including one with a dental hygienist mom, now spending their own money on fluoride supplements since their children no longer get fluoride in their drinking water.

“Pinellas County commissioners did not just ignore established science when they voted 4-3 to stop adding fluoride … to the county’s drinking water. They also cost families plenty of money and unlimited frustration, because dentists are now advising parents to give fluoride to their children to prevent tooth decay,’’ the newspaper’s editorial board wrote.

“Their challengers, Charlie Justice and Janet Long, support restoring fluoride to the county’s drinking water. It only takes one new commissioner to reverse the backward decision — and save Pinellas County families time, money and frustration,” the editorial noted.

The paper urged county voters to oust Bostock and Brickfield. And voters did.

7 thoughts on “Battles over water fluoridation spread across the country”

That is a gross understatement. The battles over water fluoridation are WORLD-WIDE for the few remaining countries that still fluoridate their tap water. Most countries around the world have ended this barbaric practice. Look into the fluoride battles occuring in Ireland, Australia, and New Zealand.

Many countries around the world are skeptical of the﻿ “benefits” of adding fluoride to drinking water. Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany,﻿ Iceland, Italy,﻿ Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, Japan and China have all recognized that water fluoridation is not a safe and fair practice.

On﻿ PubMed.gov

Caries frequency before and after discontinuation of water fluoridation in Kuopio, Finland”

“In spite of discontinued water fluoridation, no indication of an increasing trend of caries could﻿ be found in Kuopio. The mean numbers of fluoride varnish and sealant applications decreased sharply in both towns between 1992 and 1995. In spite of that caries declined.”
PMID: 9758426

Fear tactics, equivalent to terrorism, are what anti-fluoridation efforts are based in.

There is not a SINGLE, credible, scientific organization in the World that supports or recognizes the claims that these groups make regarding OPTIMALLY fluoridated water. Not one. Just ask them.

The health benefits of optimally fluoridated water are recognized, endorsed, and/or supported by over 100 groups internationally, including the World Health Organization, AMA, AAP, American Dental Association, CDC, US Surgeon Generals , and the American Cancer Society, among many others.

Again, not a SINGLE one of these credible, scientific groups or organizations puts their names behind the claims of the anti-fluoridationists. Their claims are not founded in credible, peer-reviewed, published, scientific research. Period.

National and International Organizations That Recognize the Public Health Benefits of Community Water Fluoridation for Preventing Dental Decay

Academy of Dentistry International
Academy of General Dentistry
Academy for Sports Dentistry
Alzheimer’s Association
America’s Health Insurance Plans
American Academy of Family Physicians
American Academy of Nurse Practitioners
American Academy of Oral and Maxillofacial Pathology
American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons
American Academy of Pediatrics
American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry
American Academy of Periodontology
American Academy of Physician Assistants
American Association for Community Dental Programs
American Association for Dental Research
American Association for Health Education
American Association for the Advancement of Science
American Association of Endodontists
American Association of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons
American Association of Orthodontists
American Association of Public Health Dentistry
American Association of Women Dentists
American Cancer Society
American College of Dentists
American College of Physicians–American Society of Internal Medicine
American College of Preventive Medicine
American College of Prosthodontists
American Council on Science and Health
American Dental Assistants Association
American Dental Association
American Dental Education Association
American Dental Hygienists’ Association
American Dietetic Association
American Federation of Labor and Congress
of Industrial Organizations
American Hospital Association
American Legislative Exchange Council
American Medical Association
American Nurses Association
American Osteopathic Association
American Pharmacists Association
American Public Health Association
American School Health Association
American Society for Clinical Nutrition
American Society for Nutritional Sciences
American Student Dental Association
American Water Works Association
Association for Academic Health Centers
Association of American Medical Colleges
Association of Clinicians for the Underserved
Association of Maternal and Child Health Programs
Association of State and Territorial Dental Directors
Association of State and Territorial Health Officials
Association of State and Territorial Public Health
Nutrition Directors
British Fluoridation Society
Canadian Dental Association
Canadian Dental Hygienists Association
Canadian Medical Association
Canadian Nurses Association
Canadian Paediatric Society
Canadian Public Health Association
Child Welfare League of America
Children’s Dental Health Project
Chocolate Manufacturers Association
Consumer Federation of America
Council of State and Territorial Epidemiologists
Delta Dental Plans Association
FDI World Dental Federation
Federation of American Hospitals
Hispanic Dental Association
Indian Dental Association (U.S.A.)
Institute of Medicine
Institute for Science in Medicine
International Association for Dental Research
International Association for Orthodontics
International College of Dentists
March of Dimes Birth Defects Foundation
National Association of Community Health Centers
National Association of County and City Health Officials
National Association of Dental Assistants
National Association of Local Boards of Health
National Association of Social Workers
National Confectioners Association
National Council Against Health Fraud
National Dental Assistants Association
National Dental Association
National Dental Hygienists’ Association
National Down Syndrome Congress
National Down Syndrome Society
National Foundation of Dentistry for the Handicapped
National Head Start Association
National Health Law Program
National Healthy Mothers,
Healthy Babies Coalition
Oral Health America
Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
Society for Public Health Education
Society of American Indian Dentists
Special Care Dentistry
Academy of Dentistry for Persons with Disabilities
American Association of Hospital Dentists
American Society for Geriatric Dentistry
The Children’s Health Fund
The Dental Health Foundation (of California)
U.S. Department of Defense
U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs
U.S. Public Health Service
Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA)
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)
National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research (NIDCR)
World Federation of Orthodontists
World Health Organization

“nyscof” points to a particularly bad piece of journalism, i.e. the reporter does understand the science that supports fluoridation.

Ex-Commissioner Nancy Bostock would probably have preferred some sort of “pseudo-balance” in the coverage of the fluoridation issue in Pinellas County. But the Tampa Bay Times gave proper weight to the science and to the projected impact on the community. (You don’t give equal weight to astrologers when talking about NASA projects.)

Stopping fluoridation was going to mean, on average, that every year 1/3 of the community would need an extra trip to the dentist. That a huge extra dental bill for individuals and for Medicaid, to say nothing of lost work days and suffering.

Operations include extractions root canals & stainless steel crowns & cost up to $15000. These happen more often in communities CWF. The findings of the Louisiana study has been confirmed in Scotland, Texas, Australia, and New York. Data presented to the Portland, OR City Council showed about 70% prevention of these operations in a comparison of two Oregon towns.